Sen. Wyden, 14 Other Senators Send Letter To President-Elect Obama Touting Healthy Americans Act

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 25 Nov 2008 - 10:00 PST

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Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 14 co-sponsors of Wyden's Healthy Americans Act (S 334) on Friday sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to consider the plan as a model for universal health care, CQ Today reports. The bill would effectively replace the employer-sponsored health care system with a system in which individuals would be required to purchase private health insurance through state-administered purchasing pools (Wayne, CQ Today, 11/21). Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orzsag estimated that the plan would become "more than self-financing" after a few years (Bolton, The Hill, 11/21).

The also letter was signed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). The lawmakers did not propose that Obama back Wyden's plan, but they wrote that health care overhaul should reflect the principles behind the bill, including establishing universal health coverage, ensuring affordable coverage, overhauling the private insurance market and improving health care quality (Wayne, CQ Today, 11/21). In addition, the lawmakers said Obama must demand reform that promotes improved disease prevention, makes health care prices and choices easier for consumers to understand and modernizes federal tax rules for health coverage.

The senators wrote, "Over the last two years, we have come together as Democrats and Republicans to co-sponsor the Healthy Americans Act because we believe that for health reform to succeed it must be bipartisan," adding, "We also believe that in these tough economic times with soaring budget deficits, it is critical to fix our broken health care system without breaking the bank" (The Hill, 11/21). The letter states, "We believe Congress must explore financing mechanisms that would maximize the use of existing health care dollars and ideally produce savings in the future" (CQ Today, 11/21).

Wyden said he plans to "work very closely" with the incoming Obama administration, as well as Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) -- both of whom are crafting separate health care overhaul legislation.

Baucus Meets With Budget Leaders
In related news, Baucus last week met separately with Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), ranking member Gregg and members of the Senate HELP Committee to discuss how pay-go rules could affect efforts to overhaul the health care system. According to CongressDaily, "Baucus has said recently that he will try to convince Conrad and Gregg that a health care overhaul will need to skirt budget pay-go rules, given the economy." Baucus said, "I think there are going to be upfront investments that are necessary -- that you have to invest in order to reap long-term savings and increase in value."

According to CongressDaily, Conrad "is a fiscal hawk who is unlikely to throw pay-go rules to the wind"; however, last year he said that health care reforms that have "potential for long-term savings, even though they may have upfront costs" should be considered. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said, "I really don't see if you're talking about education, health care, infrastructure, that you can possibly say that you can't afford it when your economic status means that you're not competitive now." CongressDaily reports that House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) "has echoed those thoughts on pa-go" (Edney, CongressDaily, 11/21).

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